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Night of the Blood Moon

The whole world seemed to be in a frenzy for last night’s total lunar eclipse on 8 October 2014. It was the last lunar eclipse for 2014 and the next one will be on 4 April 2015. Luckily for me, I was in Changi at the time and found a high spot overlooking the eastern horizon to wait for moon rise. Unfortunately, our neighbours in Indonesia decided to have a bonfire in their backyards and the haze from forest fires started blowing into Singapore towards the evening.

The PSI level was in the unhealthy range (>100) and visibility was poor. Even though the moon rise was at 6.50pm, I still could not see any sign of the moon. It was only at about 7.30pm when I saw a reddish glow through the haze. The moon had already risen well above the horizon by then, and had already started coming out of total eclipse. The reddish glow was from the sunlight reflected off the moon’s surface and filtering through Earth’s atmosphere. Because of the haze, I couldn’t see the ‘Blood Moon’ effect where the whole moon appears red.

From total eclipse to full moon. It took roughly 2 hours for the transition.

Better to see the moon then nothing. I heard people who camped out at the Western side of Singapore didn’t get to see the eclipse at all.